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Kurt Ludecke and I Knew Hitler: An Evaluation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
Extract
Kurt Ludecke's I Knew Hitler: The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge, published in 1937, was one of the first accounts of Hitler by a person claiming to have been closely associated with the highest figures of the Nazi Party, and as such it was widely reviewed. The New York Times gave the memoir both a column in its daily “Books of the Times” and a full page in the Sunday book review section. Other leading publications treated the book with similar interest. The reviews ranged from enthusiastic (the New York Times reviewer, Email Lengyel, characterized the book as “a historic document” and “indispensable”) to dubious (the Saturday Review of Literature complained that “one can't believe him”).
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- Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1979
References
1 New York Times, Nov. 28, 1937; Saturday Review of Literature, Dec. 4, 1937. (In the United States, the umlaut was dropped from “Lüdecke.”)
2 Orlow, Dietrich, The History of the Nazi Party, 1919–1933 (Pittsburgh, 1969), p. 323.Google Scholar
3 Bullock, Alan, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (New York, 1962), pp. 84, 126, 130, 228f., 381.Google Scholar
4 Franz-Willing, Georg, Die Hitlerbewegung: Der Ursprung, 1919–1922 (Hamburg, 1962), p. 132.Google Scholar
5 The report is printed in Der Hitler-Putsch: Bayerische Dokumente Zum 8./9. November 1923, ed. Deuerlein, Ernst (Stuttgart, 1962), pp. 544–47.Google Scholar
6 Vökischer Beobachter, Feb. 6, 1930.
7 Ibid. Konrad Heiden also mentions Ludecke and the French money. See his Hitler: A Biography (New York, 1936), p. 221.
8 Völkischer Beobachter, Oct. 22/23, 1923, and Nov. 7, 1923.
9 The dispatches are printed in Deuerlein, ed., Der Hitler-Putsch, pp. 543–47. There is also a fleeting reference to Ludecke in the Italian government's diplomatic correspondence. Orsini Baroni, an Italian diplomat in Vienna, sent a telegram to Rome in October 1923, noting the arrival in Italy of Ludecke, “Hitler's plenipotentiary to Fascism and the Italian government.” Ludecke had gone to Italy, according to Baroni's information, to seek Fascist support for Hitler's march on Berlin, in exchange for which Hitler would recognize Italy's Brenner frontier. Telegram, Baroni to Mussolini, I documenti diplomatici italiani, ser. 7, 1922–1935, 2 (Rome, 1955): 285.
10 There are also two events in Europe in this period involving Ludecke which he describes in his book, and for which there exist independent evidence. The first was a congress of anti-Semites in Salzburg (described on p. 249) which involved Ludecke in a quarrel with another anti-Semite. A letter of Ludecke describes the affair; see Ludecke to Georg de Pottere, Oct. 30, 1925, National Archives (hereafter NA), Microcopy T-81, Roll 667, frames 5475100ff. (hereafter abbreviated as T-81/R-667/frs. 54757100ff.). The second event was a gathering of Hungarian racists, attended by Ludecke and described by him on pp. 261–66 of the book. A report of the German embassy in Budapest, noting that Ludecke had been continuously under the surveillance of the Hungarian police, confirms Ludecke's presence there. See Welczeck to Auswärtiges Amt, Dec. 29, 1924, Hauptarchiv der NSDAP, Folder 1756, Reel 23A, Hoover Institution, Stanford, California.
11 Letter, Ludecke to Schickedanz, Nov. 3, 1925, NA, T-81/R-667/frs. 5475141f. The newspaper clipping is on the next frame of the microfilm; it is a New York Times article about Henry Ford, from which there can be no doubt that the “F” in the letter is Ford. The “C” is undoubtedly Cameron, the editor of the Dearborn Independent.
12 Letter, Ludecke to Rosenberg, Dec. 7, 1925, ibid., fr. 5475139. In this letter, Ludecke asks “was Hitler macht” and signs off “mit herzlichsten Grüssen für Sie und Ad. H.”
13 Letter, signature illegible to Rosenberg, May 12, 1925, ibid., fr. 5475145.
14 Marriage Certificate no. 1003, Kurt Ludecke and Mildred Coulter, June 13, 1927, Records of the Probate Court, Wood County, Bowling Green, Ohio.
15 “GrafLuckner über Lüdecke,” Nov. 22, 1934, Referat Deutschland, betr. Lüdecke, Kurt G. W. und Soldatenkow, Basil, Inland II A/B 283/5, 1934–1941, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Bonn (hereafter cited as Ludecke File, PAAA).
16 Schubert, Gunter, Anfänge nationalsozialistischer Aussenpolitik (Cologne, 1963), p. 164.Google Scholar The trail had also disappeared for the Münchener Post, a Social Democratic newspaper. In a 1930 article dealing with some leading Nazis, it referred to the “so very ‘mysterious’ Herr Lüdecke” and stated that he had “disappeared from the political stage.” Münchener Post, Nov. 11, 1930, reprinted in Führer befichl: Selbstzeugnisse aus der “Kampfzeit” der NSDAP, Dokumentation und Analyse, ed. Tyrell, Albrecht (Düsseldorf, 1969), p. 61.Google Scholar
17 Hitler's Secret Conversations (New York, 1953), p. 84.
18 Rosenberg, Alfred, Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg (Chicago, 1949), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar
19 Von Bülow's Memorandum, Apr. 24, 1933, NA, T-120/R-2371/frs. 188728–29.
20 Letter, George S. Messersmith to Secretary of State, May 12, 1933, NA, State Department Decimal File 811.91262/112.
21 The letters to and from Hanfstaengl can be read in the Ludecke File, PAAA.
22 Letter, Rosenberg to Buch, June 29, 1933, NA, T-454/R-55/fr.6.
23 Hiller, Kurt, Köpfe und Tröpfe: Profile aus einem Vierteljahrhundert (Hamburg, 1950), p. 329.Google Scholar Both Ludecke and Hiller mention one guard in particular, Schwarz, and both take note of a White Russian who was an especially vicious anti-Semite. Hiller, repeated his story in a later memoir: Leben gegen die Zeit (Hamburg, 1969), p. 276.Google Scholar
24 Telegram, Luther to Auswärtiges Amt, May 5, 1934, Ludecke File, PAAA.
25 Letter, Luther to Auswärtiges Amt, May 8, 1934, ibid.
26 Letter, Dr. Gotthardt to Auswärtiges Amt, July 13, 1934, ibid.
27 Unsigned Memorandum, Deutsche Botschaft, Paris, May 25, 1934, ibid.
28 Letter, Ludecke to Hitler, Geneva, Apr. 10, 1934, document no. CXXIX-a-120, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (Paris). I am indebted to the Centre for providing me with a photocopy of the letter. A summarized version is printed in Alfred Rosenberg dans l'action idéologique, politique et administrative du Reich hitlérien, ed. Billig, J. (Paris, 1963), pp. 314–15.Google Scholar
29 For his testimony in the closed session, see the following: U.S., Congress, House, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Extract from Executive Hearings, New York, Sept. 14, 1934, Testimony Given by Kurt Georg Wilhelm Ludecke, Strictly Confidential Committee Print, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session. The transcript was privately printed for the use of the committee members; there is a copy in the Dickstein Papers, American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio. The Dickstein Papers also contain the Congressman's notes for his interrogation of Ludecke. The transcript of the public hearing is in: U.S., Congress, House, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Public Hearings at New York City, October 16 and 17, 1934, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session. See also “Jeering Nazis Pack Congress Hearing,” New York Times, Oct. 18, 1934. There is additional material in U.S., Congress, House, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Investigation of Nazi and Other Propaganda, 74th Congress, 1st Session, Report no. 153.
30 See Report of Nolle, C. H. to the Bundesamt of the Stahlhelm, March 9, 1935, printed in Der deutsche Imperialismus und der zweite Weltkrieg (Berlin, 1961), 2: 300–301Google Scholar; Letter, Dr. Leibbrandt to Pg. Obermüller, May 2, 1935, NA, T-81/R-11/no fr. no.; and Letter, Dr. Haselbacher to Deutsche Botschaft, Washington, Oct. 7, 1935, Ludecke File, PAAA.
31 The government was soon disabused about the size of the 814-page book. In June 1938 State Secretary von Weizsäcker gave a copy of the book to the Foreign Office archives, for deposit in a vault. See Auswärtiges Amt Memorandum, June 29, 1938, Ludecke File, PAAA.
32 Letter, signature illegible, to Ernst Bohle, Feb. 23, 1938, Kurt Ludecke File, Berlin Document Center.
33 Letter, Dieckhoff to Auswärtiges Amt, Nov. 1, 1938, Ludecke File, PAAA.
34 Letters, Thomsen to Auswärtiges Amt, Jan.1, 1939, and Lammers to Auswärtiges Amt, Feb. 6, 1939, ibid.
35 New York Times, Dec. 19, Dec. 24, 1939; and Washington Daily News, Dec. 6, 1939.
37 Letter to me from Raymond F. Farrell, Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Services, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington.
38 New York Times, Mar. 26, May 5, June 22, 1948.
39 Letter to me from Dr. A. Hoch, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich.
40 Von Ranke, Leopold, Aus Werk und Nachlass, 1: Tagebücher, ed. Fuchs, Walther P. and Schieder, Theodor (Munich, 1964): 240.Google Scholar